Atlas V Snares 4 Launches During The Gap

NASA awarded a $600-million contract Monday for four Atlas V rocket launches that will blast off from Florida's Space Coast during the gap between shuttle retirement in 2010 and the first launches of Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft in 2015.

Two communications satellites and two science missions will be launched under the contract, which is good news at a time when NASA will be cutting about 3,500 jobs at Kennedy Space Center.

"At this time of economic stress, announcements like this are critically important to the future the Cape and Brevard Country," said Lynda Weatherman, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast. "This will retain numerous high-paying, high-tech jobs in our community."

The contract was awarded to United Launch Alliance, a joint venture partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing that launches U.S. government payloads aboard Atlas and Delta rockets at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. All four missions will blast off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 41.

The company employs 757 people on the Space Coast and 4,100 around the country.

Michael Gass, president and chief executive officer of the alliance, said the company is proud to have been selected for the job.

"ULA has a strong and proud history of supporting NASA programs, and we look forward to continuing this rich tradition," Gass said in a statement.

The missions include launch of: ++Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

Set for launch in the fourth quarter of 2011, the mission calls for an Atlas V to launch two identical spacecraft that will fly through the Van Allen radiation belts -- rings of highly energetic protons that are the byproduct of cosmic radiation colliding with atoms in the upper atmosphere. The charged particles can damage spacecraft instruments and can present a radiation hazard to astronauts.

The spacecraft aim to provide researchers with data that might enable scientists to predict how the particles are formed and how they change in response to solar energy.

++Two NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. The spacecraft provide a communications signal relay system that links orbiting spacecraft with ground control centers. The system enables NASA's Mission Control Center to maintain contact with shuttle crews during 85 percent of every orbit.

The first of the two satellites is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2012. The second will launch in the first quarter of 2013.

++The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. Four identical spacecraft will be launched in 2014 as part of a space physics research experiment aimed at the interaction of energy emanating from the sun's solar wind with Earth's magnetic field.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the United Launch Alliance image of an Atlas V rocket rolling out to the pad at Launch Complex 41 earlier today. The 192-foot-tall rocket is scheduled to launch a new-generation military communications satellite at 9:24 p.m. EDT Tuesday. You can also click the enlarged image to get an even bigger view. Photo Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance.